The premier Dutch soccer team Vitesse left for training in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) this year – without its best defender, after UAE authorities refused to allow him into the country. The reason: he is Israeli.

Hon. Gerrt Wilders, leader of the Dutch Freedom Party (PVV) in the Hague Parliament lambasted Dutch Soccer team, Vitesse from ArnheimÂ for dropping an Israeli player from its squad, priot to its match with an Abu Dhabi team.Â As guoted in a Jerusalem post, article,Â “Dutch soccer team ditches Israeli player for Abu Dhabi match“, Wilders said on his Twitter account:

Vitesse shouldn’t have gone to the United Arab Emirates to protest the refusal to let Mori in. They are now accepting the emirates’ Jew-hate. Cowardly.”

TheÂ Jerusalem PostÂ article citedÂ Â one other “Dutch politician and several media criticized the team Vitesse from Arnhem over the weekend for agreeing to play in Abu Dhabi despite the refusal Saturday to let Dan Mori into the country for matches against two German teams”.

TheÂ Jerusalem PostÂ report noted that:

Pieter Omtzigt, a lawmaker for the CDA party, told Dutch media on Monday that Vitesse should behave like Dutch lawmakers, who refuse to visit places which try to dictate the make-up of parliamentary delegations.
Ester Bal, communications director for Vitesse, said the team “stays away from politics and religion. We have always done this. We are a soccer club.”

BS. Any dealings with Arab Muslims always include politics and religion. To deny this means they are lying in support of Arab bigotry.

Management said in a statement that the decision to go to Abu Dhabi was made because “the team had obligations and wanted to prepare to the best of our abilities for future matches.”

Perhaps a security reason for possibly dropping Defender Dan Mori from the Vitesse soccer squadÂ may have been the alleged JanuaryÂ 2010 hit by MossadÂ of Hamas weapons dealer,Â Mahmoud Al-MabhouhÂ in neighboring Dubai.